Over 51,000 primary teacher posts vacant in UP government schools; no new recruitment, says minister

NEW DELHI: More than 51,000 posts of assistant teacher are lying vacant in the government schools teaching Classes 1 to 8 (primary and upper-primary) and managed by the basic education department in Uttar Pradesh. However, basic education minister Sandeep Singh on Tuesday stated that there will be no fresh recruitment drive for teaching jobs.

While responding to a question asked by a Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA in the ongoing monsoon session of legislative assembly of Uttar Pradesh, Singh, responsible for basic shiksha, said that under the recruitment process of 69,000 assistant teachers, a total of 6,696 candidates were posted in different districts in 20 months from April 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022.

“Presently, the basic education department is carrying out two recruitment drives. However, the recruitment drives are affected as cases against it are pending in courts. We will proceed with the recruitment drives according to the orders of courts. Hence, at present there is no proposal under consideration regarding creation of new posts for Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) passed candidates and conduct of teacher recruitment examination,” Singh said.

शिक्षक भर्ती , शिक्षामित्रो, अनुदेशकों, डीएलएड,पूर्व बेसिक शिक्षा अधिकारी श्री राजीव रंजन की जांच समेत कई विषयों पर विधानसभा में बात रखी @samajwadiparty @yadavakhilesh @UPGovt pic.twitter.com/2K4eoAfjPR

— Anil Pradhan (@Anilpradhan01) February 28, 2023

By September 2022, there were 63,261 posts of teachers lying vacant against the sanctioned 5,80,084 posts in government schools run by the basic education department. Now, a total of 51,112 posts of assistant teacher are vacant in Council Junior Basic School.

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UP Assembly: RTE Act and PTR

In response to questions related to teachers requirement in government schools, Singh said, “Adequate number of teachers are available as per Right To Education (RTE) norms, who will be deployed as per requirement.”

The Right to Free and Compulsory Child Education Act 2009 (RTE Act), mandates a pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) of 30:1 in primary schools and 35:1 in upper primary schools.

According to the education ministry’s Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2021-22 report on school education, the PTR is 29:1 in Uttar Pradesh primary schools (Classes 1 to 5) and 33:1 in upper-primary schools.

In the last five years, the Uttar Pradesh government has recruited 1.64 lakh teachers in the schools managed by the basic education department.

बीते पांच वर्षों में बेसिक शिक्षा परिषद में 1 लाख 64 हजार शिक्षकों की भर्ती की गई है ताकि बच्चों को बेहतर शिक्षा मिल सके। #UPBasicEducationModel pic.twitter.com/5AfiQPXKSU

— Department Of Basic Education Uttar Pradesh (@basicshiksha_up) February 25, 2023

Secondary teachers vacancy

In response to a question on the vacant posts of teachers and peons in schools teaching Classes 9 to 12 and managed by Uttar Pradesh’s secondary education department, secondary education minister Gulab Devi informed that 41.8% posts of lecturers and 43.7% posts of headmasters are lying vacant.

Also read | 5 UP districts have no government college; Ayodhya college runs with 3 contract teachers

Devi informed the state assembly that information regarding vacant posts of teachers has been sent to Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Service Selection Board (UPSESSB), Prayagraj. The process of appointment will start after secondary education board will receive the list of candidates from UPSESSB, she said.

“Arrangements have been made to fill the vacant posts of peon through outsourcing,” she said in a written reply to the state assembly.

In a written reply to Lok Sabha, union minister of state (MoS) education Subhas Sarkar on February 13, 2023 shared the data of vacancies of school teachers under Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) for the academic year 2022-23. According to the data, a total of 9,86,565 posts of school teachers are lying vacant against the sanctioned 62,71,380 posts – 15.7%. In Uttar Pradesh, as many as 1,32,236 posts of government school teachers are lying vacant against the sanctioned 6,02,316 posts or, 21.9%.